More Than Conquerors

Christ is in the Lord, the Christian life we've been seeing in our study of Romans chapter
eight is something of a journey.
It's a journey that began in eternity past in the heart of God.
When in his love he said his choice upon each one of his children and decided that one
day we would be and we would be his children.
It's a journey in which the reality of that choice comes to expression in time and space.
When God through His word and spirit not only calls us into being but when He calls us
to faith in Jesus Christ makes us part of the family of God, draws us out of the kingdom
of the world, puts us in the kingdom of His Son and begins us on that, the working
out of that march towards His kingdom.
It's a journey that one day will come to complete expression.
When at the right hand of God in glory we shall sit and reign with Him forever and ever
as the chosen and the elect and the destined children of God.
The Christian life is a journey.
In that journey we experience a variety of emotions and experiences, some of which are happy,
some of which are not so happy.
In the passage before us here this morning the verses that we have read together Paul gives
us a bit of a glimpse concerning the things that we might well encounter in our journey towards
God in His kingdom.
Things that the enemy would want to use to drive a wedge between God and herself.
Notice how he puts it here, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"
Then he goes on and he gives us this whole list, shell tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.
As it is written for thy sake, we are being killed all the day long.
We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
In the time that we have this morning, I want us to spend a little bit of time looking
at these wedges that can be driven between God and ourselves, not because we wanted well
on the negative, or because we want to paint a hopeless picture of the Christian life,
but because we want to set the backdrop concerning the ultimate proclamation that Paul ends
this chapter with, nothing but nothing will separate us from the love of God because
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
We are, he says, more than conquerors.
We shall separate us from the love of Christ.
The first question is, shell tribulation.
Will tribulation separate us from the love of God?
The Greek word for tribulation is the word "clipses," it means "pressure."
And pressure in the Bible can be external pressure, but it can also be internal pressure.
Sometimes it comes together.
Paul talks about that in 2 Corinthians 7.5 when he talks about going to Macedonia, and
he says, we were afflicted at every turn, every which way I went, he says there was trouble,
fighting without and fears within.
Fighting on the outside fear on the inside.
External pressure is the kind of stuff that comes against you and me in our journey of faith
that wants to drive a wedge between God and ourselves.
Sometimes that trouble can be as little as, let's say you can't find a keys to the car
and you're in a big hurry to go someplace.
You're sitting in a service station lot, as I was once a couple of years ago and you
just got your gas tank filled and you discover you have no money in your wallet and your credit
card has disappeared.
I tell you, I had to do some fast talking to get out of that one.
He wasn't too happy to let me go with a gas tank full of gas and no money to pay for it.
Discovered later that my credit card had been left a couple hundred kilometers down the
road at a restaurant where I had been two weeks earlier.
I must confess it all honestly that at first I blamed my wife and thought she took it.
But I repented in real fast hurry.
It can be major losing your job, being struck down with illness.
God being able to live out your life to the full because the circumstances of life have
conspired against you.
Breakups and relationships, external pressure can put a tremendous load on the inside.
Internal pressure of course fears within are the kind of pressures that we deal with on
the inside and sometimes if you have to choose between the outside and the inside, I don't
know which is worse because I find you can take almost anything coming at you from the
outside if you're strong on the inside.
But if you're shaky on the inside and you've been pushed to the limit, it doesn't take
a whole lot to push you over the edge.
Fears within the fear of insanity.
The fear that if I follow Jesus I'm going to lose it, I'm going to lose my family.
The fear that if I continue on this course maybe I'll come down with an illness.
The fear that says maybe God doesn't love me anymore.
The fear that says I'm nothing in a nobody and nobody ever even notices whether I'm around
or not.
Fears within that can paralyze and that can immobile eyes.
Paul says I had a deal with fighting in the outside, trouble every which way I toured and
he says I was afraid and I was scared on the inside in the world so Jesus you will have
tribulation.
There will be times on our journey with Christ that we find ourselves in a situation of pressure
that we can't understand.
We don't know where it's coming from and we don't know if we're going to survive it.
Paul says will tribulation separate me from the love of God and he says the same thing
concerning distress, shall distress separate me from the love of God.
The word for distress originally means a crowded for room confined or crammed.
The image that comes to my mind is that of a person who is having the life squeezed
out of him or her by the situations and the circumstances of life that is coming against
us.
Everything on the inside wants to cry out and say I want to be free, I can't live this
way anymore, there's just too much coming at me hindering the expression of what lives
in my life.
I don't feel that way, distress, crammed for room.
You just want to push everybody aside and say let me be who I am.
Sometimes you want to speak your mind and you feel that you can't afford to speak your
mind because if you afford to speak your mind all kind of trouble is going to happen and
you don't know if you can get out of it and so you bottle it all up on the inside but
inside you just want to scream get off my case or you're stuck in some niche in the job
and you think you can do a whole lot better and you feel unwanted and unappreciated and
you want to make the transition into a much bigger and broader area of life but you don't
dare make the transition because you don't know if you've got what it takes to get there
and you feel crammed for room and you feel oppressed by the pressure of trying to cope
with life.
You feel that way, Paul did.
He says in the second Corinthians chapter one we do not want you to be ignorant of the
affliction we experienced in Asia for we were so utterly unbearably crushed that we
despaired of life itself utterly unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself that's
distress that's pressure and there may be times in your life and in my life in our Pilgrimage
where we find ourselves in situations where we are crammed for room where life is coming
at us from every dimension and we just want to cry out and say stop the world I want
to get off I don't know if I can survive the pressure.
Purpose of that of course as Paul goes on to say in second Corinthians chapter one is
that that is to put her hope in God who raises the dead who shall separate us from the
love of God shall tribulation or distress and he goes on to say shall persecution now that's
an interesting word because originally it means of the chase and the image that immediately
comes to my mind is that of a hunter pursuing its victim and if tribulation and distress
is the kind of stuff that comes into our lives that wants to to hinder our journey of faith
as a result primarily of circumstantial things that are coming at us then persecution takes
on a new twist because persecution always has a persecutor behind him somebody who was
taken it upon themselves to stab us because we are walking and marching in the light
and the love of the kingdom of God again that can take on a variety of different ways it
can be as simple a thing as one of your co-workers making snide remarks about you at work because
you don't go out and drink or making fun of you because you choose to go to church.
It can be the somewhat more serious problem of being at odds with your spouse because spiritually
you're on different wavelengths and you want to move in this direction he or she want
to move in the other direction and there's tension and criticism and snide remarks and
you you feel you can never do anything right because it's always your fault it can be the
more serious thing of losing your job because you refuse to compromise your principles or
you refuse to accept employment under certain terms and conditions because you think those
terms of those conditions are at odds with your Christian faith and with your Christian
values Jesus not only said that in the world we would have tribulation but he said if they
persecute me they're going to persecute you you've heard me say many times before the
church if it's going to be true to Jesus Christ in the coming years within our culture if God
does not intervene with revival and with renewal is going to face an incredible persecution that
doesn't necessarily mean we're going to so quickly be put to the sword but the restrictions
will be placed on us because the world does not share our values Paul says all those who live
godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution and Paul asks the question can persecution separate
me from the love of God can it make me give up my faith and my commitment to the Lord Jesus
Christ and then he goes on and we're going to be a little quicker over these next ones famine can
famine separate me from the love of God means hunger literally not to kind of think thank God
that most of us here are acquainted with but certainly something that God's people have been
acquainted with throughout the generations because one of the things that happens in the
context of persecution is that people's livelihood is uprooted in one of the first ways that you
begin to experience that reality is that you run out of the food that you need to sustain your
life or the life of your family and when that happens that's a tremendous incentive to make
you deny the faith because there is nothing more important in your life or in my life than keeping
alive physically and there are men and women throughout the years that have compromised their
faith and sold out their values and sold out their souls to the devil into the world because they
didn't want to face the pain of hunger and Paul says can hunger separate me from the love of God
goes on to say nakedness means destitute of course strip bear comes from a root Greek word that
is also used in the English word gymnasium and the picture of the gymnasium is that of Greek
runners laying their clothes aside so that they could run the race unhindered and unencumbered the
writer to Hebrews picks it up at Hebrews 12 when he says concerning the Christian race but as
lay aside every sin and weight that clings to us so closely and run with perseverance the race
that is set before us the root word of gymnasium the root word of nakedness is gum nuts all it means
strip bear and if persecution comes to expression in robbing us of our food the further stage of
persecution is that we lose the wherewithal to quote ourselves it becomes a total upheaval of our
economic situation again something most of this thing God cannot identify with most of us when we
get up in the morning we've got to spend time picking what socks and shirts and pants and dresses
we're going to wear that's a blessing I mean I'd always feel that way when you're undecided but it's
a blessing but all through the ages and even today many of God's people have been robbed of their
economic livelihood because they followed Jesus they tell us that when in communist China after
World War II the communists took over they didn't start out by persecuting the church in an
obvious fashion now they came along and they said because of your Christian convictions if you
won't give them up and join the party you can get your education and if you can get your
education then we won't give you a degree and without a degree you can have a job and without a
job you can't have a house and without a house you've got no place to live and before you know
it God's people are forced in positions of compromise because they have to choose between the
values of the kingdom and the values of the world the writer to Hebrews and Hebrews 11 talking
about the heroes of the faith he put it this way he said they were stone they were sawed in two
they were killed with the sword they went about in skins of sheep and goats destitute afflicted
ill treated of whom the world was not worthy wandering over deserts and mountains and in the
dens and the caves of the earth can nakedness separate us from the love of God and it gets
worse you'll notice there's a progression in all of these that he is listing the next one is
dangers or peril means risk and there are times as the Bible when we follow Jesus that it's
risky business can be risky to your emotional health it can be risky to your spiritual health it
can be risky to your physical person there are times in the Christian life that you're taking
chances in following the Lord Jesus Christ that can put you into situations of danger not only
emotionally and not only spiritually but also physically Paul you will recall had more than his
share of that in trying to be faithful to the mandate that the Lord God had given him second
Corinthians chapter 11 he lists his credentials five times I have received at the hands of the Jews
the 40 lashes less one three times I have been beaten with rods once I was stone three times I
have been shipwrecked a night and day I have been adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from
rivers danger from robbers danger from my own people danger from the Gentile danger in the city
danger in the wilderness danger at sea danger from false brethren and people think the Christian
life is boring danger there is a risk the following Jesus and you and I if we're going to follow
Jesus will find ourselves in situations where fear clutches at our heart and where we say God
if you're not here to hold on to me I am a dead duck can danger separate us from the love
of God then he adds one more to the list can this sword separate me from the love of Christ
don't know if you've ever read books concerning Christian martyrs if you haven't you need to the
classic of course is still foxes book of martyrs there have been many others men and women over the
years who have found themselves at odds with the powers of this present age and they've had to
make choices between following Jesus and standing for truth and watching the sword apply to their
children to their loved ones and to themselves they heroes of faith in many situations where people
who lost their lives out of obedience to Jesus Paul himself you'll recall it his head cut off
the Apostle Peter's tradition has it that was nailed and across upside down many of God's
choices servants throughout the course of history have been people who have lost their lives to
faith can the sword separate us from the love of God for thy sake we are being killed all the day
long we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered who can separate us from the love of God think you
will agree with me this morning that apart from God's grace any one of these and it doesn't take a
lot of it in your life or in my life can drive a wedge between God and ourselves and we come to a
point where we say God I don't know if I want to follow you anymore this is not what I bargained for
I mean really now how much does it take to keep you or me out of church or out of enjoying worship
on a given Sunday morning little hassle at home bad week what does it keep us from spending time
in prayer little distraction little trouble little persecution what does it keep
or what does it take to keep us from saying Lord I'm going to lay it all on the line and I'm
going to follow you most of the time and I can only speak for myself and you can speak for yourself
folks it really doesn't take a whole lot of tribulation distress or trouble we come to the Lord
and we say Lord this is not what I bargained for right because Lord I thought this was going to
be fun this was going to be a journey that made me feel good and thank God it is a journey and
thank God there are times when we feel good and great and the blessings of God are there and the
victory is there but usually the victories are preceded by the trials are they not and it's the
trials that Satan wants to use in your life and in my life to drive a wedge between God
and ourselves and these Roman Christians that Paul is writing to here in Romans chapter 8 are
people who are living in the midst of the most pagan capital in all of the world are persecuted
and are rejected and a despised minority who are having to lay their lives on the line for the
gospel of Jesus Christ and he says who shall separate us from the love of God how do you remain
standing when the pressure on the outside and the pressure of the inside make you want to pop
and the distress squeezes you so that you feel you've got nothing left how can you keep on going
when every attempt is being made from all sides to pull the rug out from underneath and you feel
you've got no strength left to continue Paul says the key is to remember that in Christ
nothing but nothing can separate us from God's love listen again to how He puts it all who
shall separate us from the love of Christ goes through the whole list tribulation all the way to
the sword as it is written for thysake we are being killed all the day long we are regarded a sheep
to be slaughtered what can separate us from the love of God any of these the answer no
in all these things we are more than conquerors Ruhim who loved us
in all these things we are more than conquerors Ruhim who loved us notice carefully what he says
he says in all these things we are more than conquerors a lot of people think Christianity is a
fair weather religion for the poor sats that can't take the pressures in life the people that need
a crutch to lean on because life is too tough people that are looking for the exit sign because
they're not strong enough to handle the realities of life christianity isn't just
for the sats christianity isn't a fair weather religion whereby
God just automatically removes all the tribulations and the difficulties of our lives christianities
of faith where God has said in the midst of the trials I'll be with you and I will give you whatever
it is that you need to be more than conqueror Ruhim who loved us in all these things Paul says
we are more than conquerors now conquerors and overcoming the book of Revelation is full of
overcomers the bible gives all kinds of promises to those who overcome God's intention for us is
to come to the end of our life and be overcomers people who have faced all the obstacles of the
world in hell and death itself and by faith in Jesus we have remained firm to the end and
bracing God's truth in all of these things Paul says we are more than conqueror I don't even know
what that means I'd be happy just to be a conqueror Paul says we're going to be more than conqueror
Paul always exaggerates when he wants to make a strong point you know people say sometimes well
you ask them how they're doing and they say well under the circumstances I'm not doing bad my
inclination is always to say what you do under the circumstances you're supposed to begin top
of the circumstances more than conqueror Ruhim who loved us who loved us
oh God the Father did says so nothing can separate us from the love of God
who else loved us Jesus did says so separate us from the love of Christ how do they show their love
they set their seal on us long before we were ever born when the time had come
saw to it that we were conceived brought into the world arrange the situation circumstances of
our life so that in the fullness of time we could hear the gospel respond to the gospel be born
into the God's kingdom gives us the power of their spirit takes us by the hand walks and marches
with us until that final day of glory in all these things as Paul we are more than conquerors
through him who loved us our security and the assurance of our salvation
is never based on our ability or the lack of it we are assured because God in Christ loved us
before the foundation of the world and he took us by the hand and he says you just keep on
looking to me and I'll see to it that you get all the grace that you need when you need it
to be everything that we ever need to be to live for the praise and the glory of God that's why
Paul goes on in this passage and so triumphantly I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels
nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor
anything else in all creation we'll be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord I am convinced he says there isn't anything in all of the universe
that can hinder my experience of God's redemptive love and God's redemptive grace
not because I'm so smart not because I'm so strong not because I'm going to be able to face the
fires of persecution hard acre brokenness but because God has promised that in all these things
through faith in Christ I shall be more than conqueror let me ask you this morning
what's your fear what is there in your life or in your circumstances that threatens to drive a wedge
between you and God the fear of death you know the writer de Hebrew says that it's the fear of
death that Satan uses to keep us in lifelong bondage not just the fear of dying dying but the fear
of losing my reputation the fear of losing my happiness the fear of losing my hell the fear that
grasps me in the heart and that says if you really go on with Jesus there's no telling what's going
to happen to your kids what separates you from the love of God somebody says what is not death
that I'm afraid of I'm afraid alive I know people for whom life is so incredibly painful they'd
much rather die than live remember a young man one time going through intense struggles
talking to his father one time and they were talking about dying for Christ and young man says
I'm not afraid to die for Christ it's living for Christ that I'm worried about
what are you afraid of life somebody says angels and principalities and powers
Satan is coming after me with all of his hordes I don't know if I can stand against him temptation
somebody says well it's my past I mean there were things that happened to me in my past
that messed me up so much I don't think I'll ever overcome I don't think I'll ever be the strong
man or woman that I'm destined to be somebody else says it's not the past I'm worried about it's
the present oh life is awful my spouse doesn't understand me my kids have straight off the path
my finances are the pets now somebody else says I worry about the future I mean I see I see
unemployment coming I see social of evil coming I see all kinds of difficulties coming I don't know
where my bread is going to come from I don't know if I'll have what it takes to face the future
somebody else says well it's me I see these drives in me I see that desire to sin I go out
deliberately and sin I know I ought not to do it but I don't know how to stop it I don't think
I'll be able to remain faithful to Jesus when the fervigants to fly you know I remember being
the youngster must have been 13 or 14 lying in bed one I thinking about these things crying out
to God in prayer saying Lord don't ever let me grow up and get to a point where I don't think I
need you or I want to turn away from you hold on to me let me ask you again what is it that you see
as the mountain that can drive a wedge between God and you that will break your faith that will
break your commitment that will break your loyalty that makes you settle for far less than what
it is that God has for you some of all that Paul says I am convinced that none of these and then
just to make sure that we understand the point he repeats in all creation is exclusive as he can
be he's been to heaven he's been to hell he's been to the past he's been to the future he's been
through the present he's been east west north south nothing but nothing can separate me from God's
love in Christ Jesus why because God's the biggest he's already done everything that needs to
be done and by faith in him as I hang on to him by faith he will give me what it is that I need
when I need it so that I can remain faithful even in the hour of death one of the most moving
stories that I remember from my childhood is the story that my father told about one of the early
Christian martyrs a man who lived in the early ages of the Christian church when people were
being persecuted and put to death and he was in prison and in the morning he was going to be
burned for his faith on a pile of wood outside the prison he was an ordinary man like
any of us might be ordinary people not the kind of stuff that martyrs are made out of and all night
long he sat in his little prison cell wondering if he would have the strength to get up in the
morning and to be led into that fire and not renounce Jesus at a little candle in his prison cell
that was the only light that he had but all during the night he was putting his fingers through
that candle flame boy that's hot don't know if I'm going to be able to handle it
cried out of God and he said God if you don't give me what it takes I haven't got the ability
to stand the pain and the anguish and the sorrow that next morning he got up and the grace of God
fell on him he claimed on that burning pile of wood he died for his faith to save so many of
God's people throughout all of the years because God is faithful to his word into his promise
who shall separate us from the love of God we know in all these things
we're more than conquerors through him who loved us nothing in all the universe is greater
than the God of our salvation please pray with me
we read stories Lord
in scripture or in history of men and women who paid an incredible price to follow Jesus
people who died for their faith we look at ourselves at how soft we are so often how little it takes
for us to grumble and and just to be angry with you or to be angry with each other or to lose
that edge that is to our commitment Lord in and we say I haven't got what it takes
to what you call us to be and that's true but help us to look to Jesus the author and the
finisher of our faith if we're the joy that was said before him during the pain and suffering
and today is seated at the right hand of God in glory and help us to understand and to believe
that when the hour of testing and trial is there we have sought faithfully to walk before you
and have sought your grace you'll give us what we need so that we can share fully in your glory
and Lord in our ups and downs and in the struggles and the difficulties of our lives
help us to understand that you're even more concerned about our arriving in glory without
spotter wrinkle than we are ourselves and help us to give you our circumstances our pains or difficulties
to believe that you are at work in all of those to work out in us the qualities that you want
there to be present in our lives and then Lord help us to stand firm in faith knowing that nothing
but nothing can ever separate us from the experience of your love thank you Lord that your
faithful and that we shall see you by grace face to face thank you for hearing us in Jesus name